Ranking Nations for Overall Freedom, not Just Economic Liberty

I always share the annual rankings when they’re released and I routinely citeEFW measures when writing about individual countries.

But even a wonky economist like me realizes that there is more to life than economic liberty. So I was very excited to see that Ian Vásquez of the Cato Institute and Tanja Porčnik of the Visio Institute have put together The Human Freedom Index.

Countries in the top quartile of freedom enjoy a significantly higher per capita income ($30,006) than those in other quartiles; the per capita income in the least-free quartile is $2,615. The HFI finds a strong correlation between human freedom and democracy. Hong Kong is an outlier in this regard. The findings in the HFI suggest that freedom plays an important role in human well-being

And here are some notes on methodology.

The authors give equal weighting to both personal freedom and economic freedom.

One of the biggest challenges in constructing any index is the organization and weighting of the variables. Our guiding principle is that the structure should be simple and transparent. …The economic freedom index receives half the weight in the overall index, while safety and security and other personal freedoms that make up our personal freedom index receive the remaining weight.

Speaking of which, here are the top-20 nations based on personal freedom. You can also see how they scored for economic freedom and overall freedom.

To be succinct, Northern European nations dominate these rankings, with some Anglosphere jurisdictions also getting good scores.

It shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that nations with economic freedom also tend to have personal freedom, but there are interesting exceptions.

Consider Singapore, with ranks second for economic freedom. That makes the country economically dynamic, but Singapore only ranks #75 for personal freedom.

Another anomaly is Slovenia, which is in the top 20 for personal freedom, but has a dismal ranking of #105 for economic freedom.

By the way, the only two nations in the top 10 for both economic freedom and personal freedom are Switzerland and Finland.

I’ve already explained why Switzerland is one of the world’s best (and most rational) nations. Given Finland’s high ranking, I may have to augment the nice thingsI write about that country, even though I’m sure it’s too cold for my reptilian temperature preferences.

@drketedc – it’s not personal freedom if it puts others at risk. You’re free not to receive medical help, you’re free not to be vaccinated, just move the fuck out to the middle of the desert and die alone.

Secondly, the main thing people are not seeing is the countries not included in the list… USSR, PDRK, Japan, China… nearly all of the countries included in this list have very small populations compared to the USA and others I’ve mentioned. It’s easy to give everyone what they want and need when you don’t have many to deal with.

This study is certainly interesting, but I read their report and I have many questions about their methodology. I suppose any study that attempts to attach numbers to a complex and abstract idea like “freedom” is going to be debatable.

They list 34 factors that went into their rating. I don’t see anything that specifies whether they were all given equal weight, or if not what the relative weights were.

6 of the 34 factors are the number of people killed, injured, or kidnapped by criminals or terrorists. I certainly agree that a high murder rate is a bad thing, but I don’t see how that’s a measure of “personal freedom” in the same category as freedom of speech or religion. They say that living in fear of criminals restricts people’s freedom to live as they please. I suppose, but by the same reasoning, you could say that a place where it is very cold has “less freedom” because people can’t do all the outdoor activities they might like to in the winter. Etc. Not everything that makes a place not somewhere you’d want to live is about freedom. Indeed, they say that they include terrorists killed in their statistics as well as victims of terrorism. So if a band of terrorists attack a country, and the country manages to kill them all at the border so that they never manage to harm anyone within the country in any way, that country’s rating on this index will still go down.

One of the factors is “procedural justice”. The one specific thing that they mention being included in this factor is whether the country’s laws provide for binding arbitration outside the court system. I’d agree that’s probably a good thing, but is a country without binding arbitration really “less free” by definition? It makes me wonder what other technicalities went into their ratings.

Two of the factors relate to freedom of religion. Two more are about freedom to establish sports organizations. If all factors are of equal weight, then the right to start a baseball franchise is just as important as the right to practice your religion. That seems a little skewed. Another two factors are gay rights. So if a society bans all religions but allows gay marriage, it is rated as just as free as a society that does not allow gay marriage but has total religious freedom. Maybe that seems reasonable to a gay person, but I don’t think most people would find these equivalent.

And so on. Perhaps half of their factors are things we normally think of when discussing freedom: freedom of the press, freedom of religion, rule of law.

Their methodology is flawed as heck.. I have been to Hong Kong several times (all after the return of HKG to mainland China). I have seen personal freedoms of individuals there being swallowed up as fast or faster than the U.S. That Ed. Snowden ran there is not proof of ‘freedom’—he was already under Chinese security there. And, by the way, the Chinese police are all over HKG trailing western businessmen as much as they tail them in the mainland.

Some SE Asian countries, by contrast, offer far more personal freedoms to foreigners than one might find traveling to the UK or elsewhere in Europe. Any former colony of the British Empire – India, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, NZ, Canada, Hong Kong, et. al., have a certain remnant ‘class’ system about them. Some more than others… but, its there, and one will find a wall sooner or later.

I’ve not been to many of the northern European countries mentioned, but, how one judges ‘personal freedom’, I think is completely up to the individual. Are they looking at single issues, or overall freedom of choice? If one, e.g., enjoys smoking marijuana or other adult activities, then, yes, Holland will be near the top of the list. But, those are singular issues. On the contrary, do you have the freedom to ‘start a business’ without over-bearing regulations? How strictly are roads & traffic policed and regulated? How strictly is any enterprise regulated? Can one just go start digging holes in the ground? Can one just go occupy and claim an empty piece of property? <— this, to me, is as important a measurement of 'freedom' as those 'personal' freedoms to choose this or that evil (drugs, alchohol, prostitution, gambling, etc.) or being able to bear arms.

Getting back to Asia .. having lived there for 15+ years, I was taken back how much harder it had become to start a business / live / raise a family HERE in the U.S. compared to THERE in Asia. Most Asian countries offer far more ease / flexibility in almost all categories, with a few exceptions.

No, the U.S. is not a free country. Not with the EPA, IRS, Dept. of Ed., DHS watching everything one does.. and knowing (fearing) that at any moment any one of those agencies can come in and just wreak havoc is daunting. That is the antithesis of personal freedom.

To hell with all you white americans, you all dont have babies or get married anymore so what are you going to do without incoming immigrants?? whos going to pay for all your wars and welfare programs?I’m going back to Mexico where I can be free from you crazy gringos and your never ending laws and regulations!!

If income tax, or any direct tax is enforced with property confiscation or prosecution, and that countries government will use force (read violence) against one who defends his property or person against confiscation/arrest, it becomes very hard to consider the country at all free. The situation places the citizen or resident in a position of having to pay the government to not dispense violence against him.

If you have to pay the government to not arrest, assault, or even murder you, you are not at all free. This study seems to ignore that fact.

[…] and the tax system is stifling, but the nation gets extremely high scores for rule of law and human liberty. Moreover, it is one of the world’s most laissez-faire economies when looking at areas other […]

[…] the tax system is stifling, but the nation gets extremely high scores for rule of law and human liberty. Moreover, it is one of the world’s most laissez-faire economies when looking at areas other […]